The Problem Last Night Was Not Just Obama

by Victor Davis Hanson

NRO’s The Corner

The problem for Obama is not that his performance was disastrous, but rather that it was his normal workmanlike coasting. But this time, and for the first time, he was pitted against a skilled debater who had both the better argument and the better intellectual artillery to deliver it. Disengaged cool could not cut it. “My/I/me/mine” first-person overload was of no value. Continue reading “The Problem Last Night Was Not Just Obama”

The Neurotic Middle East

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Let us confess it: Many of the things that are bothersome in the world today originate in the Middle East. Billions of air passengers each year take off their belts and shoes at the airport, not because of fears of terrorism from the slums of Johannesburg or because the grandsons of displaced East Prussians are blowing up Polish diplomats. Continue reading “The Neurotic Middle East”

Election Could Mirror 1980 Race

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

There was only one presidential debate in 1980 between challenger Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Just two days before the Oct. 28 debate, Carter was eight points ahead in the Gallup poll. A week after the debate, he lost to Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. Continue reading “Election Could Mirror 1980 Race”

‘Religious Defamation’ Laws Would Ban Islam

by Raymond Ibrahim

Frontpage Magazine

As the Islamic world, in the guise of the 57-member state Organization of Islamic Cooperation, continues to push for the enforcement of “religious defamation” laws in the international arena — theoretically developed to protect all religions from insult, but in reality made for Islam — one great irony is lost, especially on Muslims: if such laws would ban movies and cartoons that defame Islam, they would also, by logical extension, have to ban the religion of Islam itself — the only religion whose core texts actively defame other religions. Continue reading “‘Religious Defamation’ Laws Would Ban Islam”

The Fantasy House

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

It All Failed?

By Fantasy House I do not mean — or rather only mean — Barack Obama’s La-La land in which Austrians speak Austrian, Hawaii is in Asia, Afghans speak Arabic, the Maldives lie off Argentina, there are seven additional states, servicemen are zombie corpse-men, and Kansas twisters kill 10,000 at a time. Continue reading “The Fantasy House”

President Ethelred

by Victor Davis Hanson

National Review Online

Like old King Ethelred the Unready, who either had no counsel or had no sense, or both, and often paid the Danegeld rather than attempt to deter the Norsemen, so Barack Obama and his lieutenants still believe that they can both appease radical Islam and convince others that is not what they are doing. Continue reading “President Ethelred”

The Rape of Christopher Stevens

by Raymond Ibrahim

Frontpage Magazine

By obsessing over the 14-minute YouTube Muhammad video and its maker, the mainstream media ultimately exonerates the inexcusable and murderous response of the Islamic world. Continue reading “The Rape of Christopher Stevens”

The Palestinian Playbook

by Bruce Thronton

Frontpage Magazine

The most depressing thing about the Obama administration’s foreign policy debacle unfolding in the Middle East is that for sixty years we’ve repeatedly experienced the same Islamist game plan for defeating us that is being employed today. There is no tactic currently being used by the Muslim Brothers and other jihadist groups that wasn’t perfected by the Palestinian Arabs in their fight to destroy Israel. Continue reading “The Palestinian Playbook”

Middle East Madness

by Victor Davis Hanson

Tribune Media Services

Last week, Muslim mobs took to the streets to murder the American ambassador in Libya and three of his staffers. American embassies were attacked from Egypt to Yemen. Continue reading “Middle East Madness”

Obama’s Middle East Delusions

by Victor Davis Hanson

PJ Media

The Premodern Middle East and Postmodern West Don’t Mix, Mr. President

Globalization certainly did not bring the premodern world of the Middle East closer together with the postmodern West — despite Barack Obama’s 2007 narcissistic vows that his own intellect and background could bridge such a gap. Continue reading “Obama’s Middle East Delusions”